Passive collision restraint systems typically incorporate a cushion portion which is manufactured from a woven textile material. Such cushion portion is inflated during a collision event so as to provide a barrier between a vehicle occupant and the vehicle interior structures against which that occupant would otherwise be thrown. As will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the deployment of an air bag cushion is an extremely rapid and violent event which is initiated and completed within milliseconds. Such deployment and subsequent impact is believed to place the fabric of the cushion under substantial stresses.
A standard measure of performance for air bag fabrics is air permeability. These standards have historically been set and measured in relation to fabrics which are in a substantially non-tensioned environment such as in the procedure set forth by ASTM-D737. It has been postulated that typical fabrics which have historically made use of plain weave or ripstop weave constructions as are well known in the art will display fairly substantial increases in air permeability when subjected to tensional forces. It is an objective of the present invention to produce a fabric in which the air permeabilities will not substantially increase when subjected to tensions as may occur during deployment of an air bag cushion.